Great time! Sean tany and chuck were awesome great sightseeing and kayaking fun to see the raccoons! Highly recommend for a day on the water

The description of the event on TripAdvisor for this excursion was nothing like we experienced, and I need to tell a longer story to capture all the issues. I am an experienced kayaker, and I know that high winds can make paddling difficult. Before heading out to the meeting place, we called the tour operator and asked if the trip would be canceled due to 28 mph winds that afternoon. The operator responded that the trip would not be canceled and that where we paddled would be protected from the winds due to the islands in the area. There was no guidance in the tour details about parking, so when we arrived, we were confused when we pulled up to the marina. I dropped my wife off to find the tour, and I hurried to find parking across the street at a hotel garage. This turned out to be over $50 for the duration of the tour! The tour description does say the meeting place is a boat at the marina, but we missed that detail. What the tour description does not tell you is that you have to take a 35-minute boat ride just to get to the kayaks / SUPs. After about 20 minutes into the boat ride, Guide #1 says that the winds are very high and that paddling will be a real challenge so maybe we should consider just taking the boat to Sandspur (Racoon) Island. We told the guide we raised this concern earlier, and he replied that we could still kayak if we really wanted to but that it would need to be an abbreviated tour due to the wind and that the paddling would be tough. 2 young men decided to go ahead but my wife and I (both 65 years old) decided against it. We got dropped off at Sandspur Island which is a manmade island in Biscayne Bay. As the boat is pulling up, racoons start to come onto the beach. Guide #2 states that we should not feed the racoons as he cuts up 3 watermelons and offers them to guests to feed the raccoons. There is a Florida state sign at the beach stating not to feed the local wildlife but apparently that did not apply to this tour. Growing up in Pennsylvania we have both seen our share of raccoons, and they do not have a reputation of being “furry friends”. We tossed a few pieces of the melon and then stepped away from the group. No warnings or guidance on interacting with the animals was provided so people all treated them like pets, with some people sitting on the ground and letting the raccoons sit on their legs to get the melon. One female guest was scratched and bitten by one of the raccoons, the scratch drew blood and the bite broke her skin. She was from Ukraine and did not know how serious this was, so she approached Guide #1, who made several alarming and incorrect statements. He said he was bitten before and he didn’t seek medical care and he was fine. He said she (the victim) could go to an urgent care and they would give her rabies shots that were painful and that she probably didn’t need since there have been no cases of rabies in the raccoons on the island and no rabies cases in Florida in over 50 years. The guides did not have first aid kits so there was no means to cleanse the wound and put a bandage on it. My wife is a retired nurse, and she intervened in the discussion and encouraged the woman to check in with an urgent care. She cited that raccoons are known carriers of rabies, and it was best to get this checked. Rabies left untreated is fatal, so the guide’s cavalier attitude to this event was very dangerous. Following the trip, we did some internet searches and found multiple events of raccoon rabies in Florida. I understand that the raccoons may be considered isolated from mainland raccoons, but is that a risk worth taking after a bite? Outside of the raccoons, there really isn’t anything else to do on the island; we basically were dropped off while the boat took a previous tour back to the marina. We spent over an hour just hanging around a deserted island in the bay. I am not sure if the guides needed to kill some time since we did not kayak, but when we got back on the boat, we got a mini tour of some mansions on islands in the bay. This was not something I was looking for on a “Nature and Island Exploration on SUP/kayak” tour. In retrospect I would title this tour as “Boat Ride to Raccoon Island, Hope You Don’t Get Bitten.

Had an absolute blast on this tour! It was a crazy experience pulling up to the shore of Raccoon Island and seeing nearly 30 raccoons sprint out from the brush to the beach. The raccoons are super friendly and clearly very comfortable around people (presumably because many people come to the island to feed them). If you're holding food, they may come up and gently touch your legs, but they were gentle and won't bother you if you're not holding anything they might want. Our tour guides were also super nice and knowledgeable about the local ecosystem. I'd highly recommend this tour if you're in Miami and looking to kill a few hours during the day!

There’s a 45 minute boat ride there and back to a beautiful spot to kayak through the mangroves. Make sure to bring shoes that can get wet for a change of shoes. I used beach shoes. They have frosty water, so don’t worry about bringing some. It’s rather a small boat and during our trip it was a little crowded but fine. I met a really interesting woman who was a filmmaker, very friendly gathering and very great hosts.

Had a great time with Francis and Tany! I highly recommend the stand up paddle board.